Chicago Bulls vs. Philadelphia 76ers: Bobby Portis scores a career high 38

Bobby Portis scored a career-high 38 points in the Chicago Bulls loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night.

Ladies and gentlemen, the tank is on! After announcing earlier this week that they would be benching veterans Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday in favor of younger players, the Chicago Bulls lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in tanktastic fashion. 

After several very encouraging individual performances from guys like Zach Lavine (23 points), David Nwaba (21 points) and Bobby Portis (38 points), the Chicago Bulls found themselves with possession of the ball, up one, with about eight seconds remaining.

A turnover, Ben Simmons free throws, and a Bobby Portis miss later, and the Bulls had lost. Despite the miss at the buzzer, it was Bobby Portis who brings home the player of the game honors for this one.

Portis was a spark off the bench the second he stood up. When the Sixers got off to a fast start, it was Portis who got the Bulls back in the game with aggressive takes to the basket and a flurry of three-pointers. Check out some of these highlights:

https://twitter.com/iamvega1982/status/966848651996880896

Despite getting to the free throw line just three times, Portis’ 38 points still came rather efficiently, as he finished 15-26 from the floor and 6-9 from three. Everything he threw at the rim seemed to find its way through the net. Here are a couple more highlights from his career night.

https://twitter.com/iamvega1982/status/966870178058461184

When everything clicks at once for Portis, he looks so good. However, he’s still shooting just 32 percent on catch and shoot three-pointers this season.

Despite this, he continues to chuck up shots. Bobby Portis is the Nick Young of big men with his irrational confidence, flexing after every layup, and intricate three-point celebrations. He didn’t quite reach 40 points in this one, but it wasn’t for lack of trying down the stretch.

It’s a shame that his offensive versatility hasn’t translated to the defensive end just yet, though. With Niko Mirotic in New Orleans, Portis is now the Bulls’ leader in net rating, according to NBA.com. I suspect most of that is a result of Portis beating up on inferior bench-quality big men, even though he just played the best game of his NBA career going up against Joel Embiid for most of the game.

With the Bulls benching Lopez and Holiday, both Portis and David Nwaba figure to be the two that benefit the most. Both received over 30 minutes on Thursday and had a career-high in points. With the two of them on the floor together, the Chicago Bulls are outscoring opponents by almost 8 points per 100 possessions in over 500 minutes of sample size.

For the sake of the tank, that needs to not continue. But for the rest of the season, it’s going to be fun to watch Fred Hoiberg tinker with the young guys a bit more than he was in the first half of the season.

Next: The Chicago Bulls show they are serious about the tank